John Kerry lectures nation: You should be ‘proud’ of Obama’s foreign policy

Noah RothmanPosted at 10:01 am on July 21, 2014

In an appearance on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Secretary of State John Kerry informed the nation that he was displeased with America’s insufficiently impressed response to President Barack Obama’s handling of America’s foreign policy.

“The fact is that in every fundamental issue of conflict today, the United States is in the center, leading, and trying to find an effort to make peace where peace is very difficult,” Kerry told NBC News’ David Gregory.

“The American people ought to be proud in terms of what this president has done in terms of peaceful diplomatic engagement, rather than quick trigger, deploying troops, starting or engaging in a war of choice,” he added.

The administration is prepared to keep this up until morale improves.

Over on another network on Sunday, however, the idea that American’s should be celebrating our newer, smarter approach to foreign affairs was met with incredulity.

“This is an astonishingly bad time in the world,” ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz said on Sunday’s This Week.

“I think one of the things you have to do is go back look to see where they were focused over these past years,” she added. “John Kerry was completely focused on Israel, and look at it today.”

Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass seemed reluctant to suggest that he world is more dangerous than at “any time” in history, though he did conceded that the geopolitical landscape in Asia looks similar to that which preceded World War I.

“In the Middle East, though, it’s just the opposite,” he continued. “The parallel to 100 years ago is that the post-World War I settlement in the Middle East is unraveling.”

Contradicting Kerry again, Wall Street Journal reporter Carol Lee observed that the world is not satisfied with this White House’s present level of engagement in global affairs.

She added that Obama’s “reactive” foreign policy has created tension among America’s allies who are concerned about whether the United States will meet its commitments. Lee noted that much of the globe’s apprehension about America’s disengagement can be traced to Obama’s decision not to follow through with his “red line” in Syria.

“The decision to step back on that really was much more impactful than I think the White House realize at the time, and it’s still having reverberations,” she added.

Finally, Raddatz noted that the situation in Israel has grown worse in the last several years as separatism has become the dominant ideology in the region and moderates have been marginalized. “And everyone is begging for leadership,” she added.

Kerry had his hands full yesterday defending the administration’s approach to foreign affairs. Even in the press, the notion that Obama’s approach to foreign affairs should be celebrated requires a bit more poof than what Kerry offered yesterday.